


Traps and Teamwork

by vulcanhighblood



Series: Sharingan-Stealer Iruka [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Umino Iruka, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Fuuinjutsu Master Umino Iruka, Gen, Genin Teams, Kid Uchiha Itachi, Kid Umino Iruka, Major Character Injury, Mission Fic, Missions Gone Wrong, Protective Uchiha Itachi, Team Bonding, Team Two Umino Iruka, Umino Iruka Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:48:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28182666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulcanhighblood/pseuds/vulcanhighblood
Summary: Team Two is off on their first C-Rank Mission! It doesn't quite go to plan.
Relationships: Inari Shinko & Umino Iruka, Minazuki Yuuki & Umino Iruka, Uchiha Itachi & Umino Iruka
Series: Sharingan-Stealer Iruka [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1899430
Comments: 19
Kudos: 99





	Traps and Teamwork

For the third time that morning, Iruka checked his supplies. In addition to a full sheath of kunai knives, he had also elected to pack a wide range of handmade tags, including the traditional exploding tags, as well as his own special brand of tags: sleep tags, itch tags, stink tags, glue tags, flash-bang tags, and his newest addition, four seals that could be used to erect a barrier. He’d thought about adding some fancy elements to the barrier, like electrifying it or making it out of sound waves, but he was worried that he hadn’t spent enough time testing any variations, so he’d elected for the basic structure on these seals. Just in case, Iruka had also tossed a few strips of spare chakra paper into his pouch. Between his expensive overnight stay in the hospital after being poisoned by the orphanage thief and spending a ton of ryo on the supplies needed to restock his tags after his old supply had been confiscated by an annoying ANBU, Iruka was pretty strapped for cash, even after the Hokage had paid him, Itachi, and Shisui for their work investigating the orphanage thief. 

His low funds shouldn’t matter for long, though, because Iruka was preparing for his team’s first ever C-rank mission! According to Yuuki-sensei, they were tracking down a spy from Iwagakure who had been identified after he’d already left the village. No one was sure how much the spy knew, or what he might have taken with him. Their job was to track him down and bring him back - alive, if possible - so that T & I could figure out what he’d discovered and where the leaks were in Konoha’s security. 

After ensuring that he really did have everything he needed, plus a few cool things he’d added to his kit, like a self-inking brush he’d bought on the off chance that he needed to write a new tag or make a new barrier while in the field. He’d decided it was worth it after needing to use his own blood to make a barrier the last time he’d been in a bind and only had blank chakra paper handy. He didn’t want that to be his usual method, so he’d picked up the small brush with the hollow interior that allowed for self-inking. It was _really expensive,_ but Iruka hoped it would turn out to be a worthwhile investment in the long run. 

Patting his small pack and nodding to himself, Iruka began jogging for the gate where he would be meeting his Genin team. As he was making his way, he heard a shout from behind him. 

“Hey, Iruka!”

Turning, he spied Shinko, one of his teammates, waving a hand over her head frantically as she jogged up to join him. 

“Hey,” Iruka replied, grinning back at her. “You ready for this?”

“I’m so excited,” Shinko said, slowing as she caught up. “I can’t believe we finally get to leave the village for a _real_ mission for once!”

Iruka nodded back, equally excited. “I know, right? I can’t wait!”

The two of them jogged side-by-side for a few seconds before Iruka happened to glance to his right and nearly lept out of his skin at the dark shape by his side. Fortunately, he didn’t startle too badly or do something as embarrassing as shriek. 

“Itachi!” Iruka snapped, recognizing his other teammate after a heart-stopping moment of panic, “Why didn’t you _say_ something? You scared me!”

Itachi shot a glance in Iruka’s direction, wrinkling his nose ever so slightly as if he’d smelled something distasteful. “You should be more observant, then.” 

Iruka opened his mouth to reply that maybe Itachi should just get a growth spurt already so he’d be easier to spot, but before he could manage to formulate the retort in its entirety, he saw a shadow pass overhead, and then another voice chimed in from the other side of Shinko. 

“What’s this? All of you coming together to the gate? What a touching show of teamwork!”

Iruka whipped his head around to face the other direction, noting the amused twinkle in Yuuki-sensei’s gaze as he did so. “Yuuki-sensei!”

“Good morning,” he greeted, “Shinko, Iruka, Itachi. Excited for our first C-rank mission, are we?”

“Yes!” Shinko answered with a sharp cry.  
  
“Super excited!” Iruka added, his own grin irrepressible in his excitement.

“Very much so,” Itachi said, managing to still sound pretty neutral. It was a nice attempt, but Iruka had already seen the excitement glinting in his dark eyes and knew he was just as excited as the rest of them to be going on this mission.

“Everyone has their supplies?” Yuuki-sensei asked, glancing at them with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, sensei!” all three of them replied almost instantaneously. 

“Good,” Yuuki-sensei said, slowing his jog to a walk as they approached the gate, withdrawing a mission scroll from his pocket. He handed it to one of the two guards stationed at the gate, who glanced first at the small seal denoting its rank. Upon identification, the guard popped it open and unrolled it slightly, just enough to stamp something on the scroll.

“Good fortune on your journey,” the guard intoned, like he said it all the time. Then he paused, glancing over to Iruka, Shinko, and Itachi with a small smile before turning back to Yuuki-sensei and adding, “Come back safely.” He rolled the scroll back up, extending it in the Jonin-sensei’s direction with a respectful nod.

“We will,” Yuuki-sensei assured him, accepting the stamped scroll and tucking it back into his pocket. “All right, kids,” he said, “let’s go.” 

With that, the four of them headed out on their first C-rank mission. 

* * *

“Shisui taught me how to tell the difference between a real trail and a false trail,” Itachi told Iruka, pointing to an overturned rock. “See how that one’s been kicked up? Someone landed on the ground and dislodged it. But the footprint isn’t actually overlapping it, so it was probably a plant.”

Iruka nodded, eyeing the surrounding area curiously. “So then the snapped twigs over there are probably fake, too. They’re so obvious, even _I_ wouldn’t leave something that obvious behind unless I _wanted_ to be caught.”

“Very good,” Yuuki-sensei said from behind them, watching them work. “So have you found the real trail?”

“There’s a small scuff on the moss on this branch,” Shinko pointed out. “Like someone used this as a jumping-off point. It’s a different direction from the broken branches, and it’s pretty faint, like someone was trying to cover their tracks.”

“Good,” Yuuki-sensei said, and indicated that Iruka and Itachi should join her. “Any other signs you can see from there?”

It sounded like he’d already spotted something, but was waiting for _them_ to find it. Which made sense, he was supposed to be teaching them, and it wouldn’t be a very good lesson if he just gave them all the answers, but it was still a little annoying. Iruka hated feeling like people were gloating over him and even though Yuuki-sensei had never done that to him, the situation felt a little too close for comfort. 

“Is that another scuff there?” Itachi pointed.

Iruka squinted, and after a minute of looking, he sighed. “Which tree?” he asked.

“Is it the one with the two branches that look like they’re arguing?” Shinko asked. 

Iruka didn’t even know which tree looked like it had arguing branches, and from the twin looks of confusion on Itachi and Yuuki-sensei’s faces, neither did they. After a few moments, Iruka thought he spotted the tree in question. “Is it there?” he asked, pointing.

“Yeah, the two branches look like they’re throwing their hands in the air and yelling,” Shinko insisted, drawing looks of consternation from all three of her teammates, including her Jonin-sensei. “...fine, so apparently I’m the only one who sees it.”

“That’s okay, it took me forever to see it at all,” Iruka said, “I’m sure the nuance is just lost on me, and we all know Itachi’s not really the _creative_ type.”

“I’m plenty creative,” Itachi protested. “I just don’t understand why two branches would be arguing, is all.”

“I rest my case,” Iruka smirked at Itachi, who shot a smoldering look of irritation back in his direction. 

“So once we note the scuff here, it indicates we should start looking this way,” Yuuki-sensei interrupted with forced cheerfulness. “Let’s go, shall we?”

* * *

They finally broke for dinner late that evening as the day dwindled into the soft glow of twilight. Yuuki-sensei had them all eat their dry, bland ration bars before reminding them of their mission. “Keep an eye out - while we are still in Fire country, we’re on the trail of an Iwagakure spy, so there might be other hostiles in the area.”

Itachi nodded solemnly, munching on his ration bar in a way that made him look almost unbearably like an adorable hamster. Iruka fought the urge to coo at the sight, knowing it would probably earn him a kicked shin. Shinko glanced at Iruka, her eyes wide and shining. Iruka nodded, a bit relieved he wasn’t the only one who thought Itachi was an adorable baby. _Not_ that he planned on advertising the fact, as Itachi could probably wipe the floor with him - that’s what you got when you trained with your genius Jonin cousin in your free time, after all.

“We’re not going to sleep yet,” Yuuki-sensei continued as they finished their ration bars. “We don’t know if the spy will sleep until he reaches the border, and we’d like to avoid any cross-border incidents, as much as possible. Let’s get moving again.”

The rest of Team Two nodded seriously, packing away any traces of their meal and heading out once more. It was harder to follow the trail now that it was dark out, but Yuuki-sensei took the time to point out different indications of the spy’s route and how to follow a trail in the dark. It was a lot of information, and Iruka did his best to remember everything, silently repeating to himself everything Yuuki-sensei said as they continued moving through the forest. 

Eventually, Yuuki-sensei had them all stop and he glanced around at them. “We’re much closer now,” he said. “And there’s a reason why this particular mission was assigned to our team.”

Iruka, Itachi, and Shinko stared up at Yuuki-sensei, waiting for him to explain why they’d been specifically chosen for this mission. Slowly, Yuuki-sensei turned to look at Iruka. “Iruka,” he said, “You’ve been working on your traps and barriers, yes?”

Iruka blinked. What? They hadn’t been chosen because of _Itachi?_ They’d been chosen because of _him?_ That didn’t make sense, people were always getting mad at him because of his pranks! Though, as he thought about it a bit, the Sandaime at least had always been encouraging. So maybe this was his way of continuing to encourage Iruka? It made a certain amount of sense, anyway. “I’ve been practicing them a lot,” Iruka said slowly. “They’re not perfect yet, but-”

“Shisui says his exploding tags are better than the ones they get at the supply depot,” Itachi interrupted. “And Iruka was able to make a barrier out of chakra paper scraps while poisoned. If anyone can put a trap together to capture the spy, it’s Iruka.”

Yuuki-sensei and Shinko glanced back and forth between Itachi and Iruka before Yuuki-sensei grinned. “Well. That’s some high praise from the Uchiha clan,” he said, “Shisui is a skilled shinobi, and if he has confidence in Iruka’s skill, I’m inclined to trust his judgement.”

Shinko glanced at Iruka, impressed. “You can make barriers now?”

“A few,” Iruka said, feeling sheepish as he patted his small calligraphy kit. “I’ve been reading up on them, anyway.”

“Wow,” Shinko said, “And here I thought you hated studying.”

Iruka winced, daring a glance in Yuuki-sensei’s direction, hoping he hadn’t heard. Before he could respond, though, Itachi spoke up.

“He doesn’t hate studying, he just prefers self-guided learning,” Itachi said. “Like me.”

If by self-guided learning Itachi meant ‘study the interesting stuff and avoid homework,’ then Iruka agreed completely. If he meant ‘studying hard with no guidance’, then… well yeah, actually, that was a pretty Iruka way of learning, too. He just hadn’t really had a good experience with most teachers. Yuuki-sensei was great, though.

“Right then,” Yuuki-sensei said with a sharp nod, before turning to look at Iruka, “Be thinking about what kind of trap you want to set up for this enemy. Once we’ve spotted him, you'll have a limited time to get ahead of us and set up your trap while we move him towards you.”

Iruka nodded, considering his options. Maybe something with sleeping gas? Konoha would want to take the enemy nin alive, since they weren’t sure of the Intel he’d gotten and that knowledge would help improve village security. “Got it,” he said.

Yuuki-sensei grinned at him. “Good. Let’s go.”

And then they were off again.

* * *

It only took them an hour before Yuuki ended up sending Iruka ahead. They’d taken a look at a map and decided the best area to set up the barriers, and agreed to box the Iwa spy in until he stumbled into Iruka’s trap. Then all Iruka had to do was hold him there until they all arrived. Iruka had decided to plant a sleeping gas exploding tag inside his barriers - it was still in development, and he hadn’t had a chance to test it on a clone yet, but he knew the general principle and hoped it would be strong enough to work. If not, he’d still have a barrier that should hold the spy inside until Yuuki-sensei and the rest of the team made it to the agreed upon location. 

Setting the barrier tags had been easy enough, though Iruka had made sure to disguise them so that they wouldn’t be too obvious - if they were easily spotted, the Iwagakure spy might not willingly enter the trap. He’d hidden the sleeping gas tag too, and had tied it to some chakra wire that was connected to the barriers. He’d created a small gap between the wires, which usually meant a bit of a lag. It should be enough to ensure the barriers were completely up before the sleeping gas tag went off. 

If everything went according to plan.

Even though Iruka was pretty familiar with setting up traps like this, it still made him nervous. He didn’t like being alone in the forest, and he worried that if his trap didn’t work right (sometimes they didn’t - he always tested his traps a lot before springing them in the village but there was always a chance something could go wrong) then the spy would have him at a disadvantage. 

Swallowing hard, Iruka kept his eyes fixed on the clearing, waiting for the spy to appear. As time dragged by, he felt his anxiety ratcheting up higher and higher. What if he made a mistake? What if the barrier wasn’t strong enough? What if -

His thoughts were cut off by the small _ping_ of chakra. Not much, but enough to reach his ears, especially since he was on high alert. He couldn’t _see_ anyone, but he could hear the person’s chakra spreading out from them, and as he focused, he could hear the low buzz of unfamiliar chakra nearby. 

_Please walk into the trap, please walk into the trap, please walk into the -_ Iruka heard the chakra a moment before it would have been too late. He ducked, curling into a ball and rolling to the side just as a kunai with an exploding tag fizzling at the end whipped past him, landing in the middle of the clearing and detonating with a loud _boom._ The force of the blow dislodged the sleeping gas tag, and Iruka scowled. Now he wasn’t sure how he was going to knock the guy out! Oh well, he just had to wait for him to -

He ducked and rolled again as two more kunai buried themselves into a tree above his head. He’d been spotted! Scrambling across the ground, Iruka ducked behind a thick tree trunk and tried to concentrate. Where was the enemy chakra, where was he? He shut his eyes, listening for the chakra. He could hear the harmonious hum from the four barriers he’d set, waiting to be activated, their latent chakra a soft background noise that was barely noticeable. The enemy combatant, however, had a low rumble of chakra that seemed to be building… in the _ground._

Iruka barely had time to recognize how deadly this could be before he was launching himself into the air, just barely in time to escape the earth-style jutsu that turned the ground beneath him into a gaping maw that tried to crush his legs. He grabbed at a branch overhead, clawing at it and dragging himself up, gasping for breath as his heart began to pump frantically. 

He cast his eyes around, looking for the spy, but he couldn’t see anyone. Shutting his eyes, he listened, felt the telltale rumble of chakra, and cursed. The spy was still too far away to be caught in the barrier. If that rumble was the spy. It was possible the man was trying to cloak his chakra and had set off some sort of extended jutsu to disguise his location. But Iruka wasn’t exactly advertised as a sensor, and it might be a bit much to use anti-sensor techniques against his team. Hopefully.

If he was wrong, though… Grimacing, Iruka began to scramble up the tree. He’d been practicing the chakra control tree-walking exercises for awhile now, so he didn’t slip as he made his way up, still looking around to see if he could spot the Iwagakure spy. They must have caught sight of each other at the same time, because Iruka had to throw himself to the side to try and avoid a spray of shuriken - he was mostly effective, but two of them nicked his arm as he lept aside. He began to scramble back down the tree - if the enemy shinobi had spotted him, it would be a bad idea to stay up there. 

He hoped his team was on their way, because things were quickly getting bad out here. He barely touched the ground only to feel it ripple under his feet and he leaped off it and onto the next tree, but he was too slow, and the earth wrapped around his ankle, pulling tight. Biting back a yelp, Iruka clawed at the tree, trying to pull himself out of the earth that seemed to be trying to swallow him whole. It took more effort than he liked, and by the time he’d managed to crawl up the tree again, he’d made enough noise that a barrage of shuriken were waiting for him. He took a more direct hit this time, catching one of the small blades in his calf. This was especially annoying because it was in the leg that _hadn’t_ been crushed by the earth, so now he had what felt like either a very bad sprain or possibly a broken ankle on the right, and a shuriken poking out of the left. It was enough to slow him down as he struggled to leap to the next tree, clawing at the nearest branch in a desperate effort to try and cross to another tree without landing on the open ground. 

This wasn’t working, he needed a new trap, but Iruka didn’t have time to stop and think. He needed more time and now he was up against this enemy shinobi all on his own. Frantically, he patted at his seal kit, trying to remember what he had in there. A few extra barriers, a few of his original tags… itch tag? No, the powder dispersed too easily. Flash-bang? Might work, but also might not do anything, and the bang might make it harder for Iruka to hear the chakra. 

He flung himself away from another round of shuriken, scrabbling at the nearest tree, only to hear a loud groan, followed by a sharp _snap._ He was a solid five meters above the ground, and tried to grab another branch as he fell, but all he managed to do was collect a handful of leaves on his way to the ground. He tried to catch himself, but his busted ankle wasn’t really helping matters much and he ended up hitting the ground hard, breath gusting out of him in a whoosh. He choked trying to inhale, rolling over and tugging his knees to his chest to try and breathe, only to feel the ground around him wobble, and then he really panicked, flopping over to try and pull himself back into a tree, only for his fingers to land on the chakra wire he’d run to his barrier. The barrier he was now laying in the middle of.  
  
He gripped the wire and _pushed_ his chakra into it, hearing the sharp _ping_ of his chakra singing down the wire and pulsing through the barrier, which sprang up around him just as the earth below seemed to reach up. It struck Iruka’s barrier and faltered, unable to breach the cube Iruka had erected around himself. Still gasping for breath, his vision sparking with what was probably the beginnings of a concussion, Iruka continued to lay on the ground, knees rolled up to his chest, focusing on getting his breath back. Right as he was finally able to start filling his lungs, he felt his chakra _strain,_ and that was when he realized that the Iwagakure shinobi hadn’t fled once Iruka had erected his barrier. No, he’d formed the earth into a sharp point, and was smashing it into the barrier, trying to puncture it. 

Iruka pushed more of his chakra into the barrier, reinforcing it as best he could. He fumbled in his pouch, trying to figure out what he could do. He had a new pepper spray tag he'd made, maybe he could use that! But he couldn’t risk dropping his barrier, not with a powerful earth jutsu just waiting to swallow him whole! Unless…

Iruka frowned. Unless he could figure out a way to keep the attack at bay. Frowning, he considered his barriers. Was there a way to sneak a tag out? Could he drop them and lift them fast enough to keep the earth jutsu out? He didn’t have enough experience for this, he realized miserably. He was still a genin, after all! Where was Yuuki-sensei? Where were his teammates? Why hadn’t they come for him?

Iruka uncurled, finally able to breathe, wincing at the shooting pain in his right ankle. Running wasn’t going to be an option. The earth jutsu pounded against his barrier again, reminding him that he couldn’t just sit here much longer, either. Already, he could feel his chakra thinning, the barrier wobbling more and more under the repeated attacks from the earth. 

Finally, Iruka began tossing his mind back to any technique he could think of. Basic techniques. Substitution? He wasn’t sure there was anything close enough to use. Transformation? As if the shinobi wouldn’t notice that. 

He dug into his pouch again, feeling his barriers _ping_ as another strike came down on them. What to do? Another strike, and this time he felt his barrier _sputter._

Iruka dumped out his entire kit. What could he use? He ran his hand through the pile, frantic. _What_ could he _use?_ He had nothing, just a bunch of stupid half-formed ideas and pranks and he was going to _die_ because he didn’t have enough chakra to hold up a stupid barrier long enough to wait for his teammates! 

Another shuddering blow, and Iruka felt it in his _gut,_ like his chakra was being pulled from somewhere deep inside him and he was pretty sure chakra wasn’t supposed to feel like that. He grabbed one of his exploding tags, not even a special one, just a regular exploding one, and dropped the barrier. Sure enough, as soon as it dropped, the same spike of earth that had been pummelling at his barrier came screaming towards him. Iruka flung the tag as hard as he could, not bothering to watch it hit, though he felt the spray of pebbles and dust that meant it had found his target. Scooping up the rest of his tags and scrambling across the clearing to the nearest tree, ignoring his ankle as best he could, Iruka threw himself down and tried to focus. He wrapped his itch tag around another kunai, listening for his opponent’s chakra and flinging it in his direction. It might not take the spy down, but it could cause a distraction, which just might be enough! 

Iruka heard a muffled curse not too much later and he grinned to himself, plucking at his tags. What could he use now? The flash-bang might be worth trying, especially if his opponent was distracted by the itching powder in his exploding tag. 

Iruka concentrated, focusing on the soft rumble of chakra, and tossed his flash-bang at it. He shut his eyes just as the area was filled with a blinding light and a resounding _boom_ like lightning had just struck beside them. The Iwagakure shinobi yelped, and Iruka grimaced. That wasn't going to be enough. He needed to figure out his next step.

Now that the enemy was disoriented, he could try making a simple chakra wire snare. It took him a few precious seconds to tie it off to the required anchor points, but he was able to lay it down and cover it with leaves before dragging himself up another tree. 

“Just give up!” Iruka heard a rasping voice snarl thirty seconds later, “You’re not going to stop me with flash-bangs and tags - bit of a one-trick pony, aren’t we?” he chuckled low in his throat. “Is that all Konoha has to offer? Pathetic.” 

Iruka gritted his teeth. He was being baited, he knew that, but he also needed the shinobi to come closer if the snare was going to catch him. “I’m not pathetic!” Iruka whined, trying to sound as pathetic as possible. Hey, if this shinobi was going to enter their battle with some established biases Iruka had no problem using those biases in his own favor.

The shinobi stepped into view, a bandana tied over his head with the Iwagakure symbol etched into his hitai-ate. He had pale skin and dark eyes that seemed to be constantly moving, looking for Iruka as he moved. Slipping to a different branch, Iruka tracked the shinobi’s eyes to make sure he wasn’t spotted.

“Heh,” a soft step, the spy was so close now!! Just two more steps to the snare. “Where’s your team, kid? Did they leave you alone to die?” 

“No,” Iruka answered from the trees, trying to sound uncertain, making his voice wobble like he sometimes did with the Hokage when he wanted homework help. “They’ll come for me.” He moved again, unwilling to give away his position.

“Sure they will,” the shinobi sneered, drawing a handful of shuriken as he spoke. His eyes were darting around the trees, looking for Iruka. Good. That meant he wasn’t watching the ground. Just one more step, and he could -

Iruka heard a sharp inhale from just behind his left ear. If he hadn’t been so focused on listening for chakra he probably wouldn’t have heard it. As it was, he ducked just in time to avoid the kunai aimed for his throat. A clone! The spy had created a clone! Or maybe not, Iruka thought as he scowled at the person he was facing. If he was a clone, he wasn’t an identical copy. This shinobi was wearing a Konoha uniform, but not only did Iruka not recognize him, he had also attacked first. So the spy’s disguise, maybe? Iruka scowled, casting his gaze behind himself to the other shinobi with the enemy nation’s hitai-ate. Was he facing two enemies? Just one enemy and a disguised clone? Or maybe they were both clones. He hadn’t managed to land a serious hit on either of them, so he couldn’t know for sure just yet. He hoped they weren’t both clones, as that would mean that he’d completely failed to hold the real one at all (it would explain why his team hadn’t come yet, though).

A sharp _twang_ filled the air and the other man yelped as his foot was caught in a sharp tangle of chakra wire. “What the hell?!” he snarled, tugging at the trap. Iruka had rigged it with a few failsafes, though. This particular trap had taken the ANBU outside Hokage tower a solid four minutes to get out of - just cutting through the wire wouldn’t actually solve the problem, since it was actually tethered in five different locations coming off the tangle at different heights. He’d have to find all five strings before he’d be able to get free, and chakra wire wasn’t exactly easy to saw through, even with quality weapons. The ANBU had been grudgingly impressed, once they’d gotten over their irritation. 

Iruka wanted to celebrate his snare’s success, but he was too busy trying to not fall out of a tree while avoiding being gutted by the Konoha impostor. He kicked out with his left foot, which hadn’t been so injured as his right, trying to knock the clone out of the tree. He managed to get a solid hit in, but so did the other spy, burying a kunai in Iruka’s stomach as his feet were kicked off the branch. The spy leaped back, landing on a nearby branch and sneering at Iruka. That wasn’t a huge concern of Iruka’s at the moment, as he was too busy clutching at the kunai, trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had a weapon sticking out of him and it _hurt._ He wanted to pull it out, but he knew from training that doing so would be a terrible idea. Iruka wasn't sure what he could do, though! He was stuck in a tree with a blade in his belly, no real traps left to speak of, and a spy still eyeing him with a disconcerting leer. 

“I know you,” the spy disguised as a Konoha shinobi said then, slowly crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re the little brat that has tea with the Hokage every week.” His eyes narrowed. “I bet your Intel would be… _useful._ ”

Iruka did _not_ like the way this man said the word useful. “I won’t tell you anything,” Iruka hissed. He leaned against the trunk of the tree, feeling dizzy. He still had a few tags left - one sleep-tag, two itch-tags, a flash-bang… he fumbled with the papers, still eyeing the man warily. 

The enemy shinobi chuckled. It was a dark, sinister sound that made a shiver crawl down Iruja’s spine. “It’s cute that you think you’ll have a choice,” he said. “I-”

And then four shuriken plunged into his back, and the clone broke apart into earth, crumbling to the ground, clumps of dirt bouncing off branches on its way down. A moment later, Shinko was crouching beside Iruka. “Hey!” she gasped, “You okay? We saw your flash-bang, Yuuki-sensei sent us ahead!”

Iruka blinked in confusion. “Sent ahead?” 

Behind them, he heard a choking sound, followed by a soft gargle. They both turned to see Itachi, who had stabbed a senbon into the neck of the man still dangling from Iruka’s chakra wire snare. 

“Guess this one’s not a clone,” Itachi noted, poking the man experimentally. “Good thing I used the paralytic-tipped senbon. He’ll be easier to restrain…” he trailed off, glowering at Iruka specifically. “How did you get yourself injured so soon?” 

Iruka wanted to punch him so bad. “What do you mean _so soon?_ I’ve been fighting that guy _by myself_ for ten minutes!”

Itachi glanced at the guy, then back to Iruka, frowning. “But we were tailing the spy until your flash-bang. That doesn’t make sense.”

Iruka scowled. “I don’t know what to tell you,” he said, trying not to be annoyed, though it was hard when he was also in pain, “I fought him for awhile before I even set off the flash-bang.”

Shinko frowned at that. “That doesn’t sound right,” she said. “Yuuki-sensei had just engaged the spy when we heard your flash-bang. He couldn't have gotten here that fast.”

Easing his way down the trunk of the tree, still clutching the kunai in his stomach as he moved, Iruka tried to climb down to the ground before he got so dizzy he ended up falling out. Every motion seemed to move the kunai the wrong way, and he was already dizzy from using so much chakra in his barrier. He could barely keep the chakra focused in his feet as he slowly eased his way down the tree. 

“I wonder if we were tracking another clone,” Itachi said thoughtfully, considering the chakra wire snare that still dangled the now unconscious enemy shinobi about a meter off the ground. 

“Actually,” Yuuki-sensei called, wandering into the clearing, the limp form of another shinobi tucked under his arm, “The real answer is there were _two combatants_. I think that guy,” Yuuki-sensei indicated the man still dangling from Iruka’s chakra wire, senbon sprouting from his neck, “must be the spy’s contact.” Carelessly, he tossed the spy he was carrying to the ground, an identical paralytic-tipped senbon sprouting from his neck as well. Then he wandered over to the second shinobi dangling from Iruka’s snare, looking him over with a thoughtful expression. “He’s wearing the Iwagakure hitai-ate, so he's not likely to be undercover. You caught him yourself?” Yuuki-sensei asked, glancing at Iruka for verification.

“Shinko and Itachi helped,” Iruka said quickly, though really, he felt like he’d done most of the work, Shinko _had_ saved him from the clone and Itachi had used the paralytic to stop the other guy from escaping. It was a group effort, of sorts.

“Good job,” Yuuki-sensei said approvingly, glancing at Shinko and Itachi before turning back to Iruka, his expression shifting to one of concern. “Oh. When did that happen?” he pointed to the kunai, still hanging out in the middle of Iruka’s torso.

“Uh, about a minute ago,” Iruka said. “Before Shinko got the clone.” He pointed at the spy that Yuuki-sensei had thrown on the ground. “He looked like that guy, and he recognized me as a regular visitor of the Hokage.”

Yuuki-sensei’s eyebrows jumped up his forehead. “That’s… concerning,” he said slowly. “As is that injury,” he added, frowning and indicating that Iruka should come closer. 

Iruka did so, but slowly, because it still felt real bad. “It doesn’t feel great,” he admitted. 

“It doesn’t look great, either,” Yuuki-sensei agreed, apparently not in the mood to mince words. “I’m going to do a quick patch here, but we’ll need to get it checked out at the hospital to make sure there won't be any complications.” 

Iruka nodded. “I just want it out of me,” he said, lifting his hands away and grimacing at the sticky blood on his hands. He hadn't kept pressure on it as well as he should have, it seemed. 

Itachi watched Yuuki-sensei with interest as the man pressed his hand against Iruka’s stomach, a mild green glow surrounding his fingers as he frowned. “Yeah, this is going to hurt,” he told Iruka frankly, then yanked the kunai out in one sharp motion, chakra already knitting the wound back together before he dropped the blade, bringing his other hand up to the wound as well. 

Iruka swayed a little, spots appearing in his vision. “Uh, Yuuki-sensei?” he said weakly, not sure how to inform him that he was _pretty sure_ he was about to pass out. 

“Keep it together, Iruka,” Itachi scolded, wrapping an arm around his waist, mostly because he was too short to wrap it around Irika’s shoulders. Really, Iruka shouldn’t find that adorable, but he was injured and didn’t care about annoying Itachi at the moment, so he just said “awww” and ruffled Itachi’s hair. 

“Right,” Yuuki-sensei said, sitting back a moment later, grinning at Iruka. “Your own chakra should take care of the rest.”

 _What chakra?_ Iruka wondered, his whole body feeling cold and empty after the barriers and tree-climbing. And some blood loss, because even with how quick Yuuki-sensei had been, there was still an impressive stain on his shirt. Iruka’s fingers felt like blocks of ice, even though the air wasn’t really chilly. He wondered if that was a bad sign. 

Itachi was giving Iruka one of his signature _There’s something wrong with you and I’m annoyed you’re not telling me_ looks - Or that was how Iruka interpreted it, anyway. 

“I’m fine,” Iruka told Itachi, patting his head again, frowning at how clumsy his fingers felt. “Let’s just get back quick.”

Yuuki-sensei nodded, following one of Iruka’s snare wires back to the anchor and tugging it loose, returning to the dangling combatant and following the next thread to a different anchor. “Good plan. We’ll take turns carrying these two…”

Yuuki-sensei’s voice seemed to be fading into a sharp ringing in Iruka’s ears. The spots were back, too, and Iruka grabbed Itachi’s shoulder, probably harder than he should, but he was too busy hanging on so he didn’t hit the ground as his knees buckled. 

The last thing Iruka heard before the spots in his vision turned to darkness was Itachi saying, “I don’t think we’ll be taking turns, Yuuki-sensei…”

* * *

When Iruka woke up, he was surprised to find Itachi sitting by his bed in what had to be Konoha hospital. It was his second time in a bed here, and no more comfortable than the first stay after he’d been poisoned by the orphanage thief.

“What are you doing here?” Iruka asked his teammate, glancing at the window and noting that the sun was high in the sky. “Don’t you usually have training with Shisui right now?”

Itachi scowled at Iruka, ignoring the question in favor of his own. “Why didn’t you call for backup sooner?” 

Iruka blinked. “What?” 

Itachi continued scowling. “The medics yelled at Yuuki-sensei for almost ten minutes about bringing you back with severe chakra exhaustion, but we were supposed to be your backup.” His dark eyes narrowed as he leaned forward. “So why didn’t you call for backup?”

“I thought you guys were right behind him,” Iruka said, wiggling around to sit up and wincing at the sharp pain in his stomach. Clearly, that wasn’t quite healed yet. “I didn’t know there was a second guy.” 

“Neither did we,” Itachi snapped. “You should have-!”

“I was just trying to survive!” Iruka interrupted him. “I didn’t realize that it wasn’t going to plan! Why are you so mad about it?” 

“Because _every time_ I turn around, you’re doing something stupid!” Itachi snapped, slapping an open palm down on the blankets beside Iruka. “Do you want to die, or something?” 

“Of course not!” Iruka protested, resisting the urge to edge away from the side of his bed. He was _not_ going to be intimidated by someone half his size.

“Well you sure act like it,” Itachi said in a low voice, his expression darkening with something like despair. “I don’t get it,” he said, fingers curling into the blanket, clutching them into a fist. “Why do you take so many risks?” 

Iruka frowned. “What risks?”

“You keep trying to do things on your own,” Itachi told him, his voice brittle. “But we’re a _team._ So why…” 

Iruka looked away, not sure what the answer was to that. Why did he do things on his own? “I guess,” he finally said, “I just got used to not having help. So I need to learn how to ask for it again.” 

Itachi sighed. “You do,” he agreed. “Start with us, your team. We’re all supposed to help each other.”

For some reason that rubbed Iruka the wrong way. “You never ask _me_ for help,” he accused, pointing at Itachi. 

Itachi glared at the accusatory finger like he wanted to slap it aside before lifting his gaze to meet Iruka’s. “I _also_ haven’t tried investigating an orphanage theft on my own or fighting an enemy shinobi without backup,” Itachi reminded him. “Or tested experimental tags on myself, or pranked ANBU by myself, or-”

“Okay, okay, fine,” Iruka cut him off, feeling sheepish. “I’ll try to do better next time, okay?”

“You need to do more than try,” Itachi grumbled, before standing up, stretching a little after spending time in what seemed to be a rather uncomfortable chair. “I’ll go tell Yuuki-sensei you’re awake,” he said, before leveling a serious look in Iruka’s direction once more. “Think about what I said. We’re your team. Let us help.”

Iruka nodded, swallowing around a lump that had inexplicably formed in his throat. “I’ll… do my best,” he promised.

Itachi huffed exasperatedly. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” he muttered, spinning on his heel. “Get well soon,” he ordered.

Iruka couldn’t stop himself from smiling, watching someone as tiny as Itachi act all gruff was adorable. “I will,” he promised, settling back in his bed to wait for Yuuki-sensei as the door to his room clicked shut behind Itachi. 

Maybe he really did need to work on his teamwork more. He wasn’t used to it, but it might be nice to have at least a few people in his life he knew he could count on. His smile softened a little. Itachi, at least, had stuck around despite Iruka’s antics in the academy and even after graduation. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to rely on him a little more.

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't ask me to write a mission fic ever again, I'm clearly not cut out for it.  
> This was BY FAR the hardest fic to write after To Catch A Criminal - turns out I don't have a brain to figure out how shinobi do.... shinobi stuff. Sure would be nice to just hand-wave it, but alas, that's not how it works.  
> Anyway, I really enjoyed this fic despite the fact that i felt absolutely lost trying to figure out how to write it. I'm also excited to be moving on to the next fic, which is one of my favorite ideas for this series! hehe.  
> Thanks to everyone for reading these fics, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who enjoys Itachi and Iruka Genin-team content :3 Your comments are always appreciated!! :D  
> (Also YES, i did specifically go edit this to add 5 words to this fic to make it the word count what it is ;) YES, i am immature with a terrible sense of humor)


End file.
